Tea & Books - What are you reading?

I’m on a mystery kick so I just finished a cheesy chef based mystery, a Laura Lippman, a REALLY good mystery that I found out is a SERIES yay! and now I’m reading a British novel called “The Death List” Haha.

I enjoyed the Susan Conant dog books about a trainer named Holly Winter and her beloved malamutes, but my favorite dog mystery series so far as been the books by Carol Lea Benjamin. I can’t say they are in the cozy genre though as they have a kind of dark side, but I really liked that. What does that say about me? ;) But, I’m with gmathis, I really can’t tolerate violence, either in books or tv or movies…heck in real life, too! The Chihuahua of the Baskervilles by Esri Allbritten was a very humorous and light mystery for any little dog lovers out there.

Yes, by Laura Childs. The first half of the series is OK, but the latter ones aren’t as good. I read them mostly for the tea descriptions, but in the last one I plowed through, there wasn’t even much of that :(

Haven’t read a historical novel in way too long…may have to add these to the watch list. My mom started me on Jean Plaidy novels when I was old enough to graduate from Trixie Belden and asserted that you learn more history from a well-researched novel than you do out of a textbook. I still believe her.

Not that I only read novels to escape, but there is something so refreshing about historical fiction: you really do get to lose yourself in the past, and get away from current day to day things such as media and technology…well, until we come on Steepster to post about it, but, well, of course! I follow a blog called Peeking Between the Pages, and the writer loves historical fiction and often writes about books in that genre, but if you have any favorites in historical fiction, let me know, because I think I need to start wish list. I’ve read a few novels lately that took place in current time, and I felt a little exhausted by each one; too much like real life, know what I mean? :)

Serenity – have you read much Bernard Cornwell? I love his books. I was wary of reading historical fiction because history class is associated with memorizing names and dates and dry accounts, but his books made me interested. I started with a few of the Sharpe novels, then I devoured his Arthur trilogy and now I’m totally engrossed in the Saxon stories. These books are so carefully researched, and the characters so interesting; he always tells you what was historical and what was fiction at the end as well.

I’m a bit of a stickler about profanity (OK, I’m an old fuddy-duddy) so with regrets, I set “The Archer’s Tale” by Cornwell aside. The story itself was promising, except for the language. Are any of his any milder? Recommendations?

Holy Cannoli! I finished Pride and Prejudice (which is celebrating it’s bicentennial this year) and thought I’d give Dickens another try as he was another classic English author I was not so fond of. I picked up Great Expectations (one of the few books I had to fake my way through in high school as I simply found it too dull to read) and now I can’t put it down! The characters are so much richer and more complex now that I’m an adult! I love this! Now I have to go back to read all the books that defeated me back in high school! House of Seven Gables and Silas Marner, here I come!

I’m feeling terribly nostalgic at the moment. Why didn’t I appreciate my pre-adult days when I had them! Alas! Who was it that said, “Youth is wasted on the young”?

Maybe so gmathis, but there were numerous times where I tried to pick up Austen and failed. It was only recently that I finally conquered my first Austen novel and enjoyed it. On the other hand, I’ve always loved Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain and so on. You can’t always love everything you read, but thankfully, tastes change and now there’s a whole new world of literature open to me.

Let me know what you think of Pride and Prejudice when you get to it. :)

I’m actually taking a single author seminar this semester on Jane Austen, we’ll be tackling 7 of her books. I’m already a fan so I’m looking forward to it!
What makes Austen interesting, to me, is her choice of subject. Who else could pull off a novel about small goings on in little village towns? No major villains, no heroes, no violence.

Claire – that sounds like it would be a lot of fun! I imagine if I had taken that I’d be better at defending her books to my bf (who is interested in Napoleon warfare amongst other things), and hates that her books have such isolated settings with no mention (barely) of the war, or the decline of nobility or other big issues at the time. :p

Cacovorax – I would tell him that Austen was tackling a huge issue – feminism! Many of her characters (such as Elizabeth Bennett) are strong and self-sufficient women, interested in creating their own destinies. That was not the norm for the 1800s.

@ Cavocorax, has he read Persuasion by Jane Austen? She does touch more on those issues in that book, but I understand his point. She described her writing as being on a very small piece of ivory. She was such a marvelous writer.

The bicentennial for P&P is this week, actually! I was already planning on reading this one this year and had no idea it was 200 years old. It will be within the next couple of books! I also really loved Great Expectations. I’m guessing my school had LOW expectations, since the only Dickens we read was A Christmas Carol. No Austen or really any other bigger books, other than Shakespeare which was ridiculous considering every other book was such a low reading level.

I’ve been reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. I’ve been meaning to read it for years but since I’ve been drinking so much Dorian Grey tea I figured it’s high time I read it. It’s pretty interesting. I’ll have to try to see the movie when I finish.

Mentioned it parenthetically in a tea post…a book called “The Almond Tree” by Michelle Cohen Corasanti. It was an author giveaway from librarything.com and has grabbed my attention since the early chapters. A young Palestinian refugee, mid-1950’s, his family has been ripped apart by the Israeli occupation and at 12 he finds himself head of the family. Hat-tip to the author for interesting me enough to Google historical detail to understand the setting better.